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Wednesday, August 27, 2014

I'm so happy to share the full reveal of what I made with the Studio Calico Poet Society Project Life® kits. These kits are absolutely packed with embellishments and I just loved how perfectly they went with my photos and stories this month.

Note: reminder that all links below will work for subscribers as of now 9:00am PST and tonight at 9:00pm PST for non subscribers.

Lots of circles and stars on this spread, I used each and every one of the plastic stars that came in the main kit this month and I adored the circle stickers too and managed to get three on my spread. I'm also a super huge fan of the rubons that came in the kits this month. And yes they will stick to the plastic hearts too! Yay!

I made a little flip action and cut a hole so that the gold arrow printable would help guide the way.

I also made my own digital element this month by combining one the super cute flag cut file and a printable card. I just loved the watercolor card that Tina made for this set of printables, its so pretty and it worked really well clipped to the cut file.

My second project was the special insert I made just for my daughters first day of school. It's 6 x 12 and I just love how it turned out. Its just two sheets of 12x12 cardstock that I stitched together right down the middle with a gold thread.

Like I mentioned in my sneaks post the packaging for the rubons that came in the Oliver addon was the most adorable little clipboard piece. I decided to use it as a backing for a letter to my daughter. I just cut around the bottom edge of the clip and around the label to slip my paper underneath. I added a little element to cover up the brand name in the upper right cover and I love it. I used some of the digital stamps from Suzy's adorable set to decorate the bottom of my letter and filled in with lots of the embellishments that came in the Yeats addon. For the right side I added a phrase from the word strip stickers to the top of one of the veneer pieces that came in the main and a few more rubons but kept it more simple because I wanted to keep the focus on the photo.

I always take at least one close up face shot on the first day of school and love the way this one turned out this year. Just like last year you can see my reflection in her eyes and that is just so cool to see. The Apple of my Eye card is from Shanna's Back to School card set and it was perfect for this photo. On the right I used some more of Suzy's digital stamps to make the Class of piece. I created the offset cut with my Cameo and it was a quick and easy thing to make. The tag pulls out in the back and it just has the girls names written on it. That pink pearl eraser piece in the Yeats addonwas adorable and a must use as was that phrase from the word strips.

I waited out front while my husband went to pick her up at the end of the day and shot a series of photos of her on her scooter as she came home. I made a simple collage for the left side, cut the arrow from a card from the Yeats addon and added some more embellishments from Yeats. That & is veneer but I ended up covering is with more rubons. I posted the photo on the right hand side to Facebook when she got home and listed out some of her pro cons for the day so when I saw this card I new it was the perfect way to end out the story. I just laid it out in Photoshop and printed my text right on the card.

I just love how this little book turned out and it was so much fun picking out all of the little embellishments to use.

Monday, August 25, 2014

Its funny how some months I'm in a super matchy matchy kind of obvious color story mood and other times I just want the right card for the right moment and I'm super happy with things kind of being all over the place. The spread I made using the Studio Calico Poet Society Project Life® main kit was most definitely the later of the two and I just love it.

Here are some sneak peeks of that spread.

I really loved the digital file of this alpha stamp and had to use it for my title card.

This mountain and star card was totally hoard worthy but it was just to perfect for my super moon photo and paired with this alpha it's one of my favorite things on the spread this month. And the plastic stars, I used each and every one of them.

See, more stars with a printable.

And this days of the week card was super cute!

I also made a special 6 x 12 insert for this spread because I really wanted to focus on my daughters first day of school and their is no better way to do that than with a custom mini book style insert. Here are some sneaks of it.

Shanna's digital template set this month was the starting point for the cover of this insert. I hope I made my Mom the quilter proud with this one.

In the Oliver addon their is a set of printables and the packaging was a huge influence on the look and feel of this little insert. I used it as the base here and I'm in love with it.

I'm not usually that good with rubons but I asked for some help, got some great tips and absolutely went to town with them this month. I rubbed them on everything!

I love a good pro con list and after my daughters first day of school I posted some of her pros and cons on Facebook so when I saw this card I had to use it to wrap up the insert. It could not have been any more perfect.

I hope this has helped get you a bit excited for reveal which is in just two days! Don't forget that subscribers can shop for shop items and get them bundled with their kit orders starting at 9:00pm PST on the 26th of every month. The kits will go live at 9:00am PST on the 27th for subscribers and 9:00pm PST on the 27th for non subscribers. I think its going to be a really exciting reveal so make sure you are ready. Click here to sign up or read more about the kit subscriptions. To see all of the other kit sneaks this month click here.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

I'm a huge fan of learning from others, especially others who do such amazing work. Studio Calico has announced two new classes that I am personally very excited about. I can always use some fresh inspiration to shake me out of my photo taking rut and I can definitely use some help telling my stories in a new exciting way. I think if you've been at this hobby for awhile now you might be like me, needing a fresh perspective on how you look at what you do and if you are new to the hobby what better way to learn from the pros and start off on the right foot.

Here is the first class Snapshot - Bring your every day moments into
focus with Snapshot. Join April Foster in shooting a photo a day in September
and learn to capture all of the little details that add up to your favorite
memories. Snapshot will be enrolling through
9/30/2014 at 11:59pm EST, and class will begin on September 1st.

BY
ENROLLING IN THIS CLASS YOU’LL RECEIVE :

30
photo prompts designed to help you turn the camera on every aspect of your life
and find new things to capture.

Photo
samples for every prompt from April and one of her contributors, along with
bonus ideas for each to help stretch your creativity.

Tips
and tricks for staying inspired to pick up your camera and shoot new things
from April and her contributors.

These digital brushes will be perfect to add right to your photos prior to printing.

The next class is Pen & Paper - Put pen to paper and make your
memories come alive. Join Laura Kurz for Pen & Paper and take your layouts
to the next level by seeing how you can use words to truly make a page. From
journaling prompts to interviewing your loved ones, this class will explore
many different ways of looking at life to tell your story. Pen & Paper will be enrolling
through 9/30/2014 at 11:59pm EST, and class will begin on September 1st.

BY
ENROLLING IN THIS CLASS YOU'LL RECEIVE :

8
PDF lessons designed to help you find your voice and share your memories in a
more meaningful way.

1
video from Laura sharing her thoughts on the importance of journaling.

Jour

naling
tips and tricks from our contributors - everything from finding the right words
to capture a mood to fitting all that journaling into a page design.

Now if you are like me and know that you want to take both classes check this offer out! Purchase the Photos & Words bundle and save over 10% off enrolling in each class individually! This bundle offer is available through September 30th. By enrolling in the Photos & Words Bundle, you will receive access to two classes - Pen & Paper with Laura Kurz and Snapshot with April Foster.

Monday, August 18, 2014

The heftiest and best fashion issues of the year are starting to hit my mailbox. It's my favorite time of the year for fashion, I love seeing what the fall trends will be and pick out new things to spice up my wardrobe. Are their any fall trends you are loving so far? Clearly I'm loving the varsity look, all things leopard and tartan plaid. Be prepared to see these items on repeat from me this year.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Hello Back to School! My daughter officially started last week so we are four days in to packing lunches and snacks and I'm already bored with writing her name on the snack bags. Her lunch goes in her lunch box but for her morning recess she can take a small snack if she wants to and that is supposed to go in a small lunch bag labeled with her name. As I was writing her name on her bag again this morning I thought there has to be a better way to do this, definitely at least something a bit cuter and more fun.

I had played around with printing directly on lunch bags before for her soccer team so I thought why not do that again. I wanted to add some cute pictures and the Digital Stamps from the Teacher Card Kit addon from Studio Calico immediately came to mind.

I want to share how easy it is so you can start printing on your lunch bags too. I'm using Photoshop Elements 12 here but this could easily be done in a word processing program too.

1. First things first measure your lunch bags, I'm using the small regular sized brown Kraft lunch bags and they measure 5" wide by approximately 10 3/4" tall.

2. Lay out a document that is the same size as your bag so you know where to place your graphics and/or text and add in some guidelines. My guidelines are placed at roughly 4" down from the top and 8" down from the top.

It is best to make sure that the printed text and image are placed above the fold line for the bottom of the bag by a good inch. I found on my specific printer if I get too close to that fold I get some excess smearing of the printer ink as its feeding through. I also printed my images on the same side as the bottom fold because there is a seam on the backside of my bags that got hung up when the printer was passing over the bag.

3. Once you have your document laid out pick out your digital elements and start laying it out. I really loved the glue bottle so that was the first one I played with. I decided on the size and placement and then added in my text. The fonts I used for the bags shown in the image above are Orange Juice, Hello Kid Marker and AMPlayful which is a font I purchased for my Silhouette from the Silhouette store.

4. Because of the direction my printer prints and because I wanted to feed the solid edges of my bags into my printer first I had to flip my design before printing. I just grabbed both layers and with my move tool selected I rotated the image so that it was upside down and aligned with the bottom guideline.

5. Next I set up a custom print size for my printer (which is an Canon Pixma MG5320) so that it matched the size of my bag. I did this right from Photoshop Elements when I hit print I just selected Change Settings and Advanced Settings which brought up my Printer Properties Menu. I selected the Page Setup tab and then selected Custom from the page size drop down menu and entered in my measurements.

6. I placed the bag in the bag feed tray where I normally feed in my photo pager and hit print. Here you can see better the side I printed on and the spacing above the fold.

I hope you give it a try, the possibilities truly are endless and here's a look at the bag I made for my daughters soccer team, I found the white lunch bags at Michael's and loved printing in color on the white background.

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Today I'm talking about a few different ways to tackle lots and lots of vacation photos within your Project Life® spreads over on the Studio Calico Blog, and I hope you have had a chance to check it out. The spreads I make after we travel have become some of my most favorite ones over the past few years and I hope that some of the tips and tricks I shared there will get you inspired to document your summer travels in your albums as well.

In the post I shared a new spread that I haven't shared here yet and this is it. It was from our most recent mini road trip just a few weeks ago.

As you will read in my post on the Studio Calico Blog fitting in lots of photos is one of my favorite things to do. I created these little banner cards that flip up to hold some journaling but also let some of the photos underneath peek thru.

I made a similar card for my title but this one is static, no flipping just some images peeking thru.

The collages were simple six slot tight collages with no internal boarders so they blended seamlessly when viewed thru the top piece.

If you would like to make something similar for your travel pages I'm sharing a download with you

If you are curious about the cards I used to complete this spread or the others I posted on the Studio Calico Blog they are all from the Studio Calico Project Life kits. The most recent spread featured here uses cards from the Sandlot Project Life Kit. The other things featured on the Studio Calico Blog can be seen here and here on my blog or in my gallery over at Studio Calico that you can find here.

I hope you enjoy the cut file and make sure you share if you use it by tagging me on Instagram or commenting here.